A student in the United Kingdom was sent home from school this week for selling squirts of hand sanitizer to his peers, his mom claims.
In a post on Facebook, the boy’s mother, Jenny Tompkins, shared an image of her son arriving home from school after his enterprising bid went astray.
“Why is he getting in from school at 10:53am you ask?” Tompkins wrote. He had was just sent home for capitalizing on coronavirus fears by “charging students 50p a squirt for hand sanitizer.” She also said that disciplining his behavior was tough when his dad was calling him up to let him know he’s a “legend.”
Tompkins later added that her son made just over $11 for his little business, selling each squirt for roughly 63 cents. He blew his profits on a multipack of Doritos, she said, and was “saving the rest to buy a kebab later.”
Dixons Unity Academy in Leeds denied it excluded any pupils from selling hand sanitizer, saying the boy was sent home for an unrelated incident, BBC reported.
Commenters on the post, which had more than 195,000 shares, were amused by the boy’s entrepreneurial cheek.
“True business man in the making get him an office,” one person wrote.
“Give him 10 years he’ll be a great businessman who understands supply and demand,” said another.
The United Kingdom has 590 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 10 patients have died. Stores in the U.K. and abroad have been plagued by shortages of hand sanitizer and other household products, with shoppers hoarding over virus fears.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends regular hand washing over hand sanitizer, as soap and water are more effective for removing a larger range of germs than the alcohol-based cleaners. However, if soap and water are not available, hand sanitizers are OK if the products contain alcohol concentrations above 60%.